Welcome back! It's been a while. I've been off of eve for a bit, but I'm getting back into it slowly but surely. Wouldn't you know it, on one of my first nights back I managed to learn a very important lesson about assumptions...
So, some corpmates and I are rolling around wormhole space. They had just opened a new C2 wormhole and were exploring. I jumped in to assist. The residents of this wormhole didn't appear to be at home so we started scanning for connections. We identified the high sec wormhole, the static C3, and I was told that they had found a K162 into Unknown (Which was End of Life BTW). Because there were 3 of us in the wormhole we were going to split up to investigate the other wormholes. I was assigned the K162. I'm flying a Buzzard so this is fine as I'm pretty well suited to this type of thing. Just as I am entering the K162 one of my corpmates spot a cloaky Tengu entering the C2 from High sec. I am a bit surprised when I appear inside the K162 as I am inside a warp bubble (Crap!) After a second, I realize that it is a mobile disruptor and not a HIC, there are no ships on the wormhole (That I can see ;p) and I breathe a little easier. I immediately set to the task of gathering intel on this new wormhole. I notice something right away. I hop on comms and laughingly report that I am in a wormhole that is apparently home to morons as they have for some reason anchored a Territorial Claim Unit (which has no effect in wormhole space). As I am still giggling to myself I'm told to hold position in case the cloaky Tengu was heading my way. I agree. Less than 10 seconds later the wormhole that I had just jumped in from less than a minute ago disappears right before my eyes. (Sigh) Well, that sucks. It's wicked inconvenient, but I live in a wormhole so I can get by even if the wormholes that I am in isn't mine. I'll just have to scan my way out.
My corp has some great fellows in it, so great in fact, that they were nice enough to throw together what we call 'the wormhole app'. This app is basically a web application that we use in the in-game browser that we use to gather and record information about wormholes that we are in. It has some very convenient features, like a link to dotlan and IPS for the wormhole that you are in.
...He who is prudent and lies in wait for an enemy who is not, will be victorious...
So, now that I'm locked out of home and in some stranger's wormhole, I want to check IPS to see what the static exits are. I load up the wormhole app, and it comes up with an error. Gyah! I try again, and again it gives me an error. This time I actually read what it says. "You are not currently in a wormhole". (... what?) I have almost never been so shocked by any piece of data in this game. The question, then, would be that if I wasn't in a wormhole, then where the hell am I? Remember the Territorial Claim Unit that I thought was so funny? Yeah, not so funny now is it? 'Cause I'm not in a wormhole full of dumb-asses, as it turns out, I am the dumb-ass and I've just managed to get myself locked out of home deep DEEP in Null Sec. (Son of a Bitch!) When I mean deep, I am at the end of the map in Cobalt Edge. Specifically, X-41DA. Find it on the map here.
Let me take this time to document every last piece of data that I know about 0.0:
It's dangerous.
People are VERY protective of their homes.
Beware of gate camps.
(And the biggest difference between Wormhole space and Null Sec) You show up in local.
That is it. I know nothing else about it. All I ever needed to know about 0.0 is that I should stay out. (Way to go me!)
...If words of command are not clear and distinct, if orders are not thoroughly understood, the general is to blame...
Now that I have completely stepped in it I take time to reflect, how did this happen? Remember when my corp mate said it was a K162 into Unknown? well, it wasn't (Obviously) it was a K162 into Null Sec. I didn't verify that when I jumped through, I just took his word for it...
*Lesson Learned* Don't make assumptions! No matter what it is about, assumptions are bad. In fact, make this a life lessin and not just an eve lesson.
Moving on...
...Subtle and insubstantial, the expert leaves no trace; divinely mysterious, he is inaudible. Thus he is master of his enemy's fate...
So, now I'm stranded deep in enemy territory (~50 jumps), now what? I didn't actually 'DO' a whole lot at first. Most of the fight against this situation took place in my head. I'm going to try to crack it open for you so that you can get an idea of what to do, and what NOT to do if you ever find yourself in a similar situation.
I think that wormhole space is the best possible place to hone your eve online skills. I know there are a lot of people out there that have their favorites, and wormhole space is mine. It is the harshest environment in Eve. If you know how to get by in WH space, you can get by anywhere. Specifically in situations like I found myself in. For those of you not entirely familiar with wormhole space please allow my to paint a picture for you. Imagine you find yourself in an enormous space the size of a football field or so that is completely enclosed and pitch black. That is a wormhole system. Now, if you are lucky, you came in through a door (wormhole) and you are either standing right next to it or you bookmarked it on the way through. That door is the only 'fact' that you know about the system. If you have scanner probes, you can send them out into the darkness to find you another door, however, this represents a possible hazard. This is because everything in Eve has a small bell tied to it (like on a pet cat) everyone withing a certain distance of that entity can hear it's bell. This is the D-scan system.Now we are lucky enough that the bells sounds can tell us a lot about the entity that it is attached to. Now, if I have a cloaking device, it gives me the ability to silence my bell. (Great) There are only three 'Senses' in wormhole space: Sight (what you can see on grid with you), Hearing (D-scan), and Echolocation (Probes). Who cares about all of this? You will, trust me, but the reason I'm explaining this is because if you picture yourself in this pitch black space, how do you know if you are alone? What if someone else is in here with you and you don't know it? What if they are watching you? If you can't find something using any of these three senses, that doesn't mean that it isn't there. Now, imagine that the roles are reversed, this is my situation. I need to make sure that I can control the 'senses' of anyone else in this system because it is the only way to survive. Luckily for me that task is fairly easy as I am in a covop I can easily remove my presence from all three of their senses using my cloak. The problem is that you simply can't be cloaked all of the time. Got the picture? Good, let's move on.
...The more you read and learn, the less your adversary will know...
So, knowing that, what should one do in this type of situation? Information is the single most vital resource in this situation. I need to get as much of it as I can without giving any of it away to the opposition. This works well in wormhole space because the only information to be gained is the information that you give away. In 0.0 it's a little different. Specifically the fact that I show up in local lets everyone else in system know that I am there. Not just that I am there, but one's identity should be their most closely guarded secret in Eve, but local just throws it out there for all to see. From my identity alone the opposition should be taking that and throwing it into kill boards to find out all about me, my corp, my kill history, from which they would know that I am a wormhole resident, also, what ships I like to fly, either from kills or losses. And my stats would clearly mark me as a pvp'er (98%+ ISK Efficiency and Enemy Survival Chance < 14%). So with all of that potential information at ones finger tips, they would be foolish not to look it up. So, as far as information gathering goes, I need to determine my options, so what do I need to know? How many gates are there? (One, that's gonna be camp-tastic!) I need to get a look at it to see if it is camped.
*Lesson* DO NOT warp directly to a gate! Find a nearby celestial and D-scan the gate. If there is a camp or a static bubble on it you will see it BEFORE getting caught.
...He who knows when he can fight and when he cannot will be victorious...
In my case there was nothing at the gate at all. So that means one of two things, there is nothing at the gate, OR there are only cloakers on THIS side of the gate. The problems with gate (and wormholes) is that you cannot know what is on the other side. (Tricky) So, that all the info on the gate that I can possibly gather at this time. Could there be another way out? Like, say... a wormhole? To answer that question, I'd have to do some scanning. Unfortunately, to drop probes, I need to drop my cloak which puts me at risk. This means that I have to minimize this risk as best as I can. First, the chance of them being close enough to actually see me is virtually impossible since I created a number of safe spots already. I need to know if they have combat probes out that might see me, none, good. Lastly, I will show up on dscan if they ping while I'm decloaked, so I decide to use one of my safe spots that appears to be out of dscan range. I move to that safe spot, drop probes and scan for another wormhole. None, of course.(Sigh).That leaves me only one other option right? Try the gate of doom? No, there is actually another option that most people in this position don't take into consideration. Simply logging off. I've not aggressed anyone or anything, my logoff will be basically instantaneous. So I choose that method for now...
...If your enemy is secure at all points, be prepared for him. If he is in superior strength, evade him. If your opponent is temperamental, seek to irritate him. Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant. If he is taking his ease, give him no rest. If his forces are united, separate them. If sovereign and subject are in accord, put division between them. Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected...
Something I haven't brought up yet is that fact that as I am in this system full of potential hostiles, it is only a matter of time before they are going to attempt to communicate with me. And of course they send me a convo request, and I accepted. Now, in this phase, you have to remember the potential price of information. They are going to want more of it, and I do too, but I want to limit what I give them as much as possible. However, the other key point to keep in mind is that I want to do everything that I can to appear as non-threatening as possible. Threats to the homeland must be eliminated, but inconveniences might be allowed to leave. It's a slim chance, but it's better than no chance at all. While I was doing the above tasks, I was also taking with the system residents. After the entire conversation was over and done with, I can say that I believe that they were being as truthful and straightforward as possible. But of course, there was quite a bit of tension. They wanted me gone, and I wanted to be gone, but with the lack of wormholes, the gate was my only other option at the time. I needed more info. If I had a null sec system with only a single gate acting as the perfect choke point, I would camp it. For some reason, it seemed like this side wasn't camped, therefore I decided that the other side must be camped. This put us at an impasse. They wanted me to leave, but doing so would put me at risk. My greatest weapon was the fact that no matter how badly they might have wanted to find me, they simply could not. The only way for them to strike at me would be for me to go somewhere that they dictated. That, I must not do. Once I pumped them for as much information as I could and gathered all of the information possible to me at the time, I had to decide, try the gate, or wait. I chose wait. One of the advantages to logging off is that it allows me to dictate the pace of the game. In order to effectively catch / kill me it is very unlikely that a single ship could manage it unless they were well prepared, therefore it was more likely that the more time I spent in that system, the more resources that they could be amassing on the other side of that gate. To defuse this, all I need to do is give them a reason to stop trying, thus logging off was the best answer at the time.
...Speed is the essence of war...
Now, the next day (early morning) I am going to log on quickly to my safe spot in dscan range of the gate. As I am warping in I cloak up immediately, when I land at my safe, I dscan the gate, nothing. I warp to it at zero. I'm doing this all so quickly because i want to hit the gate as quickly as possible in order to keep the element of surprise on my side. I hit the gate without incident and jump, holding my breath. No camp on this side, in fact, noone in local at all (sweet!). Since I know that I am alone, I move to within dscan of the two gates in this system and I see that noone is watching those gates either. Now, I can fly for those gates towards home, or danger, or I can use my head. Instead of attempting to run the gates I take a step back and decide to use this alone time to myself. I drop probes and begin scanning this system for a wormhole. No luck! and on top of that, I've been joined by two more in local, I dscan and now there is an interceptor on either gate. Now, I pretty much know that the gate i cam in was safe, so I could go back that way, or i can try to charge past an interceptor in a covop (yeah right). So again, I choose to wait. I log off again. I wait 2-4 hours and try it again. I am alone when I land but am soon joined again by an interceptor and i believe an assault frigate. I'm already busy scanning again, so I ignore them. And against all odds, I find myself a brand new wormhole (Yay!).I warp to it and I jump in...
...Be extremely subtle, even to the point of formlessness. Be extremely mysterious, even to the point of soundlessness. Thereby you can be the director of the opponent's fate...
While it might sound like I just made it home, that is of course not the case. I could be another 30 wormholes away from home or high sec depending on what I just jumped into, not to mention the fact that more than likely each one is filled to the brim with people that want to kill me. But, for the most part, it's almost impossible to find / kill a covop in a wormhole. Only if you manage to catch it at the wormhole will you have about 2 seconds to grab it before it slips away, so I feel 95% safe. I use my fancy wormhole app to get me to ips for this wormhole and find that this class 3 is a low sec static (bleh). But I guess that's a lot better than 0.0. I manage to use my super stealthy skills to scan down the low sec static without waking the residents. Once in low sec I look to see where I am, and rejoice. I have a high sec gate in system! I warp to it and make it back home without incident (Yay!).
So, that is my great adventure in null sec. It may seem like a lot of words to describe something that seemed simple in the end to solve, but the extra words (hopefully) won't be wasted. If I were to put most of you 50 jumps into a hostile part of 0.0 very very few of you would make it back unless it was directly to a cloning facility. I was hoping to give you a break down of how you have to look at every situation objectively and not panic. If you have a cool head, and some patience you can usually make it out alive.
...If fighting is sure to result in victory, then you must fight, even though the ruler forbid it; if fighting will not result in victory, then you must not fight even at the ruler's bidding...
At the time that this happened I had managed to go over 5 months without losing a ship and more than making a run for it, I was tempted to pod myself back to high sec so that i wouldn't take the kill board hit. But in the end, it may have taken me a couple of days, but I did manage to make it out alive and unharmed. And my deathless streak continued on...
Until the very next day when I jumped into a K162 into deadly unknown space (C6) right into the arms of a flycatcher and a Dramiel. (Sigh)
...In peace prepare for war, in war prepare for peace...
\0 Fly Safe...
\0 Fly Safe...
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